Countless composers have set the medieval sequence Stabat Mater dolorosa to music, from Josquin Desprez and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina to Krzystof Penderecki and Arvo Pärt. But perhaps the most famous version dates from the 1730s. At the age of just 26, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi died in the spa town of Pozzuoli near Naples after a failed attempt to overcome tuberculosis. He spent the last months of his life there in a monastery, working feverishly on his Stabat Mater . By then, he had enjoyed a meteoric career as a composer, with his operas in particular being popular with audiences both at home and abroad. After his early death, however, it was the Stabat Mater that immortalized his name to this day, becoming the most copied work of the time shortly after his last breath. A version with choral additions by his contemporary Benjamin Cooke will be performed in Knechtsteden.

Tomasso Traetta

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Sep 25, 2025

Knechtseden Early Music Festival · Concerto Köln

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